Central to developing vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for biothreat agents is the ability to assess the expression patterns of both host and pathogen in the course of infection or in response to vaccines and treatments. The Pathogen Expression Core (PEC) will provide the instrumentation, services, protocols, reagents and training to support gene and protein expression analysis related to pathogenesis of biothreat and emerging pathogens. The focus will be on providing materials and expertise that complement other efforts in the RCE and offer economics of scale and centralization. The PEC broadly encompasses two areas: 1) Microarray Expression and Nucleic Acid Analysis, which will provide comprehensive service including Affymetrix array technology, manufacture of both spotted Operon oligonucleotide and custom spotted arrays, DOC arrays, custom synthesis of both DNA and RNA oligonucleotides, and quantitative PCR (Q-PCR); 2) Protein Expression Analysis, which will offer the Luminex platform to simultaneously measure a variety of cellular and serum protein markers in response to pathogens, drugs or vaccines, as well as a High-throughput Antibody Production service that will provide customized polyclonal antibodies. These services will be available to RCE researchers on a fee-for service basis, and will be available through a web-based interface. In addition to providing resources for the community, the PEC will have a developmental component that tests and integrates new technologies and protocols for the community. Once these technologies are validated, they will be incorporated into the Core's central activities. Although the activities will be largely located at UT Southwestern, it will be virtual in the sense that other expert centers will take on particular applications. The PEC will also coordinate training in the technologies it employs. Researchers will be provided web-based tutorials and periodic wet-lab courses in basic techniques. In addition, mini-sabbaticals will be arranged to provide more extensive training. The PEC will build from existing core activitites in the Center for Biomedical Inventions that are already largely dedicated to biothreat research.